If there is anything we love more than reading books...talking about them! Keep scrolling down and see what books we are raving about this month.
Want more recommendations?! Check out our full Staff Picks Page and take a peek at which books our booksellers can't stop talking about!
"Another beautiful book by Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson about the keeping an open mind and open heart." -- Amanda
"A beautiful graphic novel connecting cultures through fairy tales to tell a immigrant story of coming out, acceptance of self, and accepting others." -- Hanz
"Addario writes with clarity about a job that is both meaningful & all-consuming, offering an unglamorous but heartfelt portrait about her life as a conflict photographer. Throughout, she muses on the lessons she learned about the world and herself along the way. This is a memoir that has everything you want: adventure, cultural reckoning, honesty, and reflection." -- Holly
"Original and charming from the very first line, this beautiful story of ghosts and tradition, friendship and family deals gently with death and richly with life. Music and colors fly from every page as the protagonist processes her grief through synesthesia. That she is half Asian, an artist, and a daughter wildly curious about her mother’s inner world made it personal to me, but even without my bias there’s plenty to praise. The bold poetic choices. The subtle clicking pieces. The sensory experience of walking through Taiwan—it was wonderfully done. I can’t recommend this book loudly enough." -- Alyson
"A funny, sad, sometimes frustrating look at the intersection of motherhood and creativity. This books is claustrophobic in the best of ways and expresses in excruciating detail the varying, sometimes not socially acceptable, feelings that accompany the raising of tiny humans." -- Amanda
"Woodson does so much with so little in this middle -grade book that tackles issues like race, class, death, and incarceration with nuance and empathy. Be prepared to cry at this beautiful book!" -- Amanda
"Everything in this book is true. Everything in this book is false. Everything in this book is meaningless. Everything in this book is true, and everything in this book is false. Everything in this book is true, and everything in this book is meaningless. Everything in this book is false, and everything in this book is meaningless. Everything in this book is true, and everything in this book is false, and everything in this book is meaningless." -- Steven
"This well-written, thoroughly-researched book presents the argument that popular prison “reforms” are simply expansions of the prison industrial complex and do not ultimately make us any safer. In fact, for the most part, these alternatives reinforce existing narratives of criminality, personal responsibility, racism, and disdain for the impoverished. They convincingly show that often these solutions cause more harm than rehabilitation, layering on penalties for poverty and systemic obstacles. Ultimately, the adoption of these alternatives expands the net of incarceration, with a narrow, unimaginative focus on control and confinement over true justice and holistic healing. The book is rife with compelling examples. People are left with limited choices, no support, basic needs unmet, and significant stigma, then expected to rebuild their lives or maintain a functioning position in society. This paradigm is broken and unfair. In the final chapter, Schenwar and Law offer a broader vision for moving beyond alternatives, championing community-based interventions and a societal shift from being punishment-oriented to being liberation- and healing-oriented. This book is worth your time. Michelle Alexander wrote the foreword and Angela Davis endorsed it, so if you don’t take it from me, take it from them." -- Holly
"Captivating, unflinching, original -- all while being rather culturally momentous. This novel (a debut, no less!) has literary punch and is impossible to put down: it rightfully has gotten wide acclaim from damn near everyone. The future looks bright for trans authors and mainstream publishing." -- Lorenzo